The Progest-E & Raw Honey High

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Nearly all of the studies of "cure rates" are comparisons of one ideologically-based and lucrative treatment against another ideologically-based and more or less lucrative treatment. When the cure rate, for example for breast cancer surgery, varies with the amount of progesterone in the body, there is very little interest in investigating the processes involved, because lucrative products aren't involved.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“There have been suggestions that pregnancy hormones could control serotonin excess (McCullough and Myers, 1965). Since estrogen promotes serotonin, progesterone is likely to be the protective factor.” -Ray Peat

 

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“Recent work suggests a central role for pregnenolone and progesterone in the regulation of consciousness (18), and possibly in the brain's detoxifying system. Elsewhere, I have suggested that vitamin A deficiency might cause the excessive production of the "amyloid" protein. A vitamin A deficiency severely inhibits steroid synthesis. (It is used so massively in steroid synthesis that a progesterone supplement can prevent the symptoms of vitamin A deficiency.)“ -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“A. V. Everitt, in his book on the hypothalamus and pituitary in aging, reported on studies in which estrogen caused connective tissues to lose their elasticity, and in which progesterone seemed to be an antiestrogenic longevity factor. Later, he did a series of experiments that were very similar to Denckla's, in which removal of the pituitary slowed the aging process. Several of his experiments strongly pointed to the prolactin-growth hormone family as the aging factors. Removal of the pituitary caused retardation of aging similar to food restriction.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Hypothyroidism has been identified as a factor in all of those. Good thyroid function is necessary for resistance to bacterial infection, for regulation of blood sugar, neurotransmitters, and hormones related to mood, and for the formation of progesterone. Progesterone regulates smooth muscle tone, including the walls of veins, so that a deficiency allows veins to enlarge. It also prevents overgrowth of fibrotic tissue, and in some contexts may inhibit angioneogenesis.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“This extremely persistent disregard for important evidence about the nature of menopause and its symptoms was guided by the estrogen industry, which began in the 1930s to call estrogen "the female hormone," disregarding the facts about the biological roles of estrogen and progesterone, because chemicals with estrogenic effects were numerous and cheap, while progesterone was expensive, and had no synthetic equivalents. At the time the pharmaceutical industry began promoting estrogen as the female hormone to prevent miscarriage, it was already well known that it could produce abortion, as well as causing inflammation and cancer, and some of the most famous estrogen researchers were warning of its multiple dangers in the 1930s.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Since the Women's Health Initiative publicized the dangers of estrogen, there has been some interest in alternative treatments for hot flashes. Since a reduced production of progesterone has been associated with hot flushes for several decades, it isn't surprising that it is now being tested as an alternative to estrogen. Recently, 300 mg of oral progesterone was found to be effective for decreasing hot flashes, and a month after discontinuing it, the hot flushes were still less frequent than before using it (Prior and Hitchcock, 2012). Previously, transdermal progesterone was found to be effective (Leonetti, et al., 1999).
One of the things progesterone does is to stabilize blood sugar. In one experiment, hot flashes were found to be increased by lowering blood sugar, and decreased by moderately increasing blood sugar (Dormire and Reame, 2003).“ -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“It's very common for physicians who are aware of progesterone's "anti-aldosterone" activity to think that both estrogen and progesterone are responsible for the increased risk of sodium loss in women, especially during pregnancy, but Hans Selye demonstrated that progesterone will normalize sodium retention even when there is no aldosterone at all, following removal of the adrenal glands. It is estrogen which is responsible for the dangerous loss of sodium.” - Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Even before aldosterone was identified, progesterone's role in regulating the salts, water, and energy metabolism was known, and after the functions of aldosterone were identified, progesterone was found to protect against its harmful effects, as it protects against an excess of cortisol, estrogen, or the androgens. New anti-aldosterone drugs are available that are effective for treating hypertension and heart failure, and their similarity to progesterone is recognized.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Verzar and his colleagues investigated the effects of hormonal treatments on the aging of rat collagen, especially in their tail tendons. They found that estrogen treatment increased the stiffness and the melting temperature of collagenous tissues. While estrogen increased the cross-linking with aging, removing the pituitary gland was found to retard the aging.

Later, the cross-linking enzymes transglutaminase and lysyl oxidase, which are induced by estrogen, were found to be a major factor in the cross-linking of collagen and other molecules.

When estrogen was found to age the connective tissues, it was assumed that continual breeding during an animal's life-time, greatly increasing the total exposure of the tissues to estrogen, would increase the aged rigidity of the connective tissues, but these animals were found to have less rigid tissues. During pregnancy other hormones, especially progesterone, were also increased, and it was suggested that this reversed the effects of aging and estrogen. Since most people had believed that frequent pregnancies would cause a woman to age more rapidly, a large survey of records was done, to compare the longevity of women with the number of pregnancies. It was found, in the very extensive Hungarian records, that life-span was increased in proportion to the number of pregnancies.“ -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“A bird developing inside its eggshell illustrates the way organs and the environment interact. The chicken created a very good environment for the early development of its young. When the egg is formed, it contains everything needed to produce a chicken, except for oxygen and a steady warm temperature. But before the chick’s body has finished developing, using yolk fat for energy, the glucose contained in the egg has been consumed, and at that point the chick’s brain stops growing. A researcher who knew that brain growth in other kinds of animals requires glucose, injected glucose (or glycine) into the developing eggs when the original glucose had been depleted. The supplemental glucose allowed the chick’s brain to continue growing until it hatched. These chicks had larger brains, containing more numerous cells. The same experimenters also found that progesterone increases brain size, while corticosterone decreases it. Although the egg is a very good environment for the development of chickens, these experiments showed that it isn’t the best that can be achieved. If the hen’s environment had been different, it might have been able to provide as much glucose and progesterone as the experimenters did.“ -Ray Peat

 

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“Besides minimizing dietary PUFA, other things are known that will reduce the fibrosis associated with injury, inflammation, or aging. Thyroid hormone, progesterone, and carbon dioxide all reduce inflammation while facilitating normal tissue remodeling.”
-Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“A large carbohydrate meal increases the ratio of tryptophan to the competing amino acids, and it has been proposed that this can shift the body’s balance toward increased serotonin. In an animal study, bromocriptine, which shifts the balance away from serotonin, reduced obesity and insulin and free fatty acids, and improved glucose tolerance.

All of these observations are easiest to understand in terms of the suppression of cellular energy. Serotonin, like estrogen, lowers cellular ATP and interferes with oxidative metabolism.

Serotonin, like histamine, has its proper physiological functions, but it is a mediator of stress that has to be systematically balanced by the systems that support high energy respiratory metabolism. The use of supplements of tryptophan, hydroxytryptophan, or of the serotonin promoting antidepressant drugs, seems to be biologically inappropriate.

Many of the symptoms produced by excess serotonin are also the symptoms of hypothyroidism. Thyroid, progesterone, and high quality protein nutrition are central to protection against the serotonin syndromes. (Progesterone, like LSD, can inhibit the firing of serotonergic nerves, but an overdose, unlike LSD, never produces hallucinations.)“
-Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Cholesterol, vitamin E, progesterone, and vitamin D are considered to be "structural antioxidants," that prevent oxidation partly by stabilizing molecular structures. One of the basic functions of cholesterol seems to be the stabilization of mitochondria, preventing their destruction by stress. Serious stress lowers ATP, magnesium, and carbon dioxide. When ATP and intracellular magnesium are decreased, cholesterol synthesis increases.”
-Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“The increased mortality from accidents and suicide when cholesterol is lowered is reminiscent of the problems seen in progesterone deficiency, and it's very likely that a deficiency of the neurosteroids accounts for it.” -Ray Peat

 

[J.R.K]

“The increased mortality from accidents and suicide when cholesterol is lowered is reminiscent of the problems seen in progesterone deficiency, and it's very likely that a deficiency of the neurosteroids accounts for it.” -Ray Peat

Thank you for posting this plethora of information @Rinse & rePeat I just came across it!
I think that one issue that is not discussed is how progesterone can be beneficial for males as well as females. I know there is a recommendation for use for males but I don’t know if it differs from the female cycle recommendations.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Thank you for posting this plethora of information @Rinse & rePeat I just came across it!
I think that one issue that is not discussed is how progesterone can be beneficial for males as well as females. I know there is a recommendation for use for males but I don’t know if it differs from the female cycle recommendations.

Thanks J.R.K, you always have kind and encouraging words for me! I am not clear on dosages for men either, or if it is really necessary for everybody.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I just found this measure instruction and if Ray Peat says start with 10 mg then I definetly a mega dose!

A 60 mg drop contains 6 mg of progesterone and is probably a more common minimum amount to use. An unpopped kernel of popcorn looks the same size as a 60 mg drop of Progest-E and can be used as a reference for people who don’t have a scale for weighing small drops. There are approximately 560 drops weighing 60 mg in each 34 ml bottle.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

"Some women have noticed that the effect of a progesterone supplement is stronger when they take it with coffee."-Ray Peat